Holidays turn serious in Hollywood’s hands

Al Alexander

Friday

Nov 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 28, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Sure, stories about aging, death, failed marriages and disgraced presidencies are the last thing you want to see when you’re struggling to keep food on the table. But when it’s this good, it’s worthwhile to give art a chance this holiday season.

The economy is in the tank; two wars rage on; and jobs are about as scarce as hope these days. In other words, not a great time for Hollywood to unleash a plethora of downer films built to bait Oscar more than audiences. That’s why I’m here to implore you to give art a chance this holiday season. Sure, stories about aging, death, failed marriages and disgraced presidencies are the last thing you want to see when you’re struggling to keep food on the table. But they can be deeply cathartic, especially when they’re as well made as “The Wrestler,” “Frost/Nixon,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Revolutionary Road.”

Each carries a basic truth about human nature we all can identify with and learn from in these troubled times. They’re also films that stick with you, motivate you, maybe even change you.

Still, the realist in me knows movies that bravely test the parameters of filmmaking will struggle to lure audiences even in good times. That’s why the smart suits in Hollywood have offered up plenty of counter programming over the next six weeks.

There’s literally something for everyone, from big action pictures like the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” to high-concept comedies like Jim Carrey’s “Yes Man,” to Capra-esque fables like Will Smith’s “Seven Pounds.” And I urge you to see them all, but also don’t forget about the little guys, the films that dare to be everything all the others are not. They deserve your love, too.

So be sure to spread the Christmas cheer a little further this year. And to help you do that, here’s a little taste of what’s headed your way before its

time to take down the tree and face the cold hard winter, beginning with:

DEC. 5

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE: Vigilante-hero Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) clashes with a mob boss affectionately known as Jigsaw in this tale based on a Marvel Comic.

NOBEL SON: The son (Bryan Greenberg) of a not so noble Nobel winner (Alan Rickman) is kidnapped and held for ransom by the half-brother (Shawn Hatosy) he never knew he had.

WERE THE WORLD MINE: A musical-comedy in which a lovelorn high school thespian finds the formula for a love potion hidden in Shakespeare’s prose after he’s cast as Puck in the Bard’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Oh, did I mention that the formula turns everyone in his town gay?

DEC. 12

DOUBT: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams star in John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his Tony-winning play about a suspected pedophile priest (Hoffman) and the nun (Streep) who might be jumping to conclusions.

FROST/NIXON: A funny, sad and hugely entertaining behind-the-scenes look at David Frost’s infamous six-hour sit-down with the disgraced 37th president featuring Oscar-worthy performances by Michael Sheen (last seen playing Tony Blair in “The Queen”) as Frost and Frank Langella as Tricky Dick. Ron Howard directs Peter Morgan’s adaptation of his Broadway hit.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL: A (needless) remake of the 1951 Robert Wise classic starring Keanu Reeves as an alien (not much of a stretch there) who comes to Earth with his big lug of a robot, Gort, to warn us that we’re destroying our planet. I like Reeves, but wouldn’t Al Gore have been a better choice for this destroying-the-planet thing? I also like the sound of a Gore-Gort ticket.

NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS: Yet another punch-pulling dysfunctional family Christmas movie. This one stars Freddy Rodriguez, Debra Messing, John Leguizamo and Alfred Molina as members of a Chicago family dealing with everything from post-traumatic stress disorder to a domineering mother.

DEC. 19

THE BROTHERS BLOOM: Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo play con-men brothers who target a gorgeous heiress (Rachel Weisz) in their latest scam.

YES MAN: Jim Carrey stars as a loser who decides to change his life by saying “yes” to everything. Zooey Deschanel and Bradley Cooper don’t so much co-star as go along for the ride.

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH: Kate Beckinsale plays a journalist imprisoned for refusing to divulge her source. The flick, loosely based on the case of ex-New York Times reporter Judith Miller, was written and directed by Rod Lurie (“The Contender”).

THE WRESTLER: Mickey Rourke wins comeback player of the year as a washed-up pro wrestler dealing with a bad ticker and an estranged daughter.

SEVEN POUNDS: Borrowing bits of two TV warhorses, “My Name Is Earl” and “The Millionaire,” Will Smith (reunited with “Pursuit of Happyness” director Gabriele Muccino) plays an IRS agent making amends for past wrongs by helping seven strangers turn around their destitute lives. Rosario Dawson and Woody Harrelson co-star.

THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX: Mice and animated films go together like Walt and Disney, so it’s a safe bet that this rodent’s tale (written by “Seabiscuit’s” Gary Ross) about an ostracized mouse (voiced by Matthew Broderick) Mickeying around with a human princess (“Harry Potter’s” Emma Watson) will score big with the runts. Adults, however, are likely to see it as “Bee Movie” in mice clothing.

DEC. 25

BEDTIME STORIES: Adam Sandler looks to recapture some of his old box-office magic with this action-packed family film in which a chronic storyteller, along with his niece and nephew, suddenly see his tall tales come to life around them. “Hairspray” director Adam Shankman oversees the effects-laden madness.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON: David Fincher, a director whose films (“Fight Club,” “Zodiac, ” Seven”) gravitate toward the darker recesses of humanity, seems an odd pick to direct a big-hearted fable, but then again, that’s what makes him perfectly suited to handle F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story about the fleetingness of life and love. It’s also encouraging that he’s hooked up with Pitt for a third time. But will audiences want to see the two-time Sexiest Man Alive playing a guy in his 80s? Fear not: Unlike us, Pitt only gets younger as a man who ages backward, longing for the day when he’ll be the same age physically as the love of his life played by Cate Blanchett.

GRAN TORINO: Clint Eastwood directs and stars in a story of a confirmed bigot who suddenly finds himself protecting a Chinese-American neighbor from a gang of young thugs. Early word is that it’s one of the old guy’s best performances.

MARLEY & ME: John Grogan’s 2005 best-selling memoir about a couple (Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson) and their mischievous yellow Lab comically deals with serious issues like marriage, aging, family and death. But will it bark or will it bite? We shall see, but it doesn’t stir hope knowing that the director is David Frankel, who last helmed the shrill and vastly overrated “The Devil Wears Prada.”

LAST CHANCE HARVEY: “Stranger Than Fiction” stars Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson embark on a brief encounter when Hoffman’s loveable loser travels to London to attend his daughter’s wedding. Think of it as an older-skewing “Before Sunrise.”

DEC. 26

THE READER: The title instantly indicates the movie is not about George W. Bush. What it IS about is a heated romance in post-World War II Germany between Kate Winslet and a boy half her age, who has no idea she’s a Nazi war criminal. The film reunites director Stephen Daldry and writer David Hare, who last teamed on the sleep-inducing trifle “The Hours.”

VALKYRIE: The controversial movie with the controversial star, Tom Cruise, has been kicked around the release schedule for months But test screenings have shown Bryan Singer’s thriller about an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler ain’t all that bad. We shall see. Kenneth Branagh and Bill Nighy co-star.

JAN. 2

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD: The last time we saw Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet together they were drowning at sea in “Titanic.” This time they’re drowning in misery in Sam Mendes’ ode to repressed suburban mores, a subject Mendes (Winslet’s real-life husband) proved quite adept in with his Oscar-winning “American Beauty.” Based on Richard Yates’ incendiary 1961 novel, “Road” promises much of the marital angst and kitsch fashions we’ve come accustom to on “Mad Men.” Just don’t expect any Celine Dion ballads. These hearts will not go on, at least not together.

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